Sunday, 24 February 2013

Wind energy in Scotland:"The biggest transfer of money from the poor to the rich that we've ever seen in history"

The skyline of Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, Scotland, is dominated by an enormous wind farm.(image by wikipedia)

"We're seeing in Scotland the biggest transfer of money from the poor to the rich that we've ever seen in history"

"In parts of the Highlands now tourism is being effectively destroyed and people are leaving the Highlands because tourists no longer want to go there with the landscape bristling with wind factories and industrial wind turbines"

Struan Stevenson

MEP, Scottish Conservatives

Finally somebody is telling the truth about the Scottish government's absurd wind energy policy, which is destroying Highlands tourism, enriching a handful of wealthy landowners and leading to skyrocketing consumer prices,without bringing any significant CO2 reductions. Over the next eight years Scotland's wealthiest private landowners are on course to earn £ 1 billion in rental fees from wind farm companies, according to the book The Myth of Green Energy, written by Conservative MEPStruan Stevenson:

Duke of Roxburghe, could earn £1.5 million a year from turbines erected in the Lammermuir Hills.

Sir Alastair Gordon-Cumming, a seventh baronet, could earn £435,000 a year for allowing 29 turbines on his Altyre Estate near Forres in Moray.

The Earl of Seafield could get £120,000 a year from eight turbines on his estate near Banff.

The Earl of Moray could receive around £2 million annually in rent for 49 turbines at Braes O’Doune

The Earl of Glasgow, a Liberal Democrat peer, has 14 turbines on his Kelburn estate in Ayrshire that could generate £300,000 of income per year.

The Crown Estate, which controls large tracts of land and the seabed around Scotland, is on course to net billions of pounds from offshore wind farms. The revenue will be split between the Treasury and the Queen.

And this huge transfer of money will happen without achieving any meaningful economic or environmental benefits:

“In every country where wind turbines have been installed they have failed to demonstrate economic feasibility; they have failed to demonstrate viability as a solution to global warming; they have failed to achieve significant CO2 reductions and have failed to provide efficient electricity production or protection of the environment.

“Indeed in countries where industrial wind power has been added to the grid in any volume, consumer costs have rocketed. The two countries with the highest numbers of installed commercial wind turbines, Germany and Denmark, now have the highest electricity bills in Europe.

“And yet in Germany, Der Spiegel reported in a recent article that despite 20,000 installed turbines, CO2 emissions have not been reduced by even a single gram, because additional coal-burning plants have had to be built to support wind power.”